The author contends that RT3 is an experiment at best and just the latest swing of the pendulum that is education policy.
-----
'Race to the Top' is just the latest experimentation
February 21, 2010 5:00 AM
Educating America's children should not be designated as a "Race to the Top", which suggests winners, losers and also-rans.
President Barack Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan want states to compete for $4 billion in federal grant money to facilitate raising student achievement. Their Race to the Top competition requires participating states to follow strict rules and utilize innovative and experimental strategies.
Oregon Superintendent of Public Instruction Susan Castillo introduced a new Race to the Top Web site in January, saying, "This Web site contains federal requirements and Oregon's strategies for securing a RTTT grant from the U.S. Department of Education." She explains that she and Gov. Ted Kulongoski "have brought together education stakeholders from schools, nonprofits and private industries from across the state to identify best practices and chart a clear path for next steps in education reform." Each local district decides whether to participate.
Experimentation on schoolchildren — often called new strategies or reforms — has been a constant since my student days at UCLA in the 1960s. I was trained to teach the "new math" of set theory; yet by the 1970s when my daughters were in elementary school, set theory was out. I returned to teaching in the 1980s and found discovery and integrated math replacing content-rich, properly sequenced math courses. "Tedious tasks" such as memorizing math facts and studying phonics were abandoned in the name of "reform." The 1990s saw conflicting strategies in America's schools.
By 2000, the pendulum was swinging away from "discovery math" and "whole language" back to more traditional and effective teaching methods. But the punitive No Child Left Behind Act created "pushed out" students; those whose low test scores helped label schools as failures tended to drop out. What innovative strategies and unintended consequences will be sanctioned by Race to the Top competition?
The experimental policy of tracking students, prevalent in the 1960s, is making a comeback. Tracking means grouping students according to their aptitude for specific subjects. By the 1980s we had honors, regular and remedial level classes in language arts, mathematics, and other academic subjects. But the cry for equality caused school districts to revise that policy. Thus my algebra 1 classes contained gifted eighth-graders, average ability ninth-graders, and 1th-graders who had already failed the course.
New research shows that recognizing students' differences can help boost their achievement. Education Week (Jan. 27) reports a study from the Brookings Institute. "Schools that tracked students had significantly more math pupils performing at the 'advanced' and 'proficient' levels, and fewer students at the 'needs improvement' and 'failing' levels. And the opposite was true of schools that had 'un-tracked.' In short, students did better when they were in classes tailored to their needs."
Another experiment, required by Race to the Top rules, is to evaluate teachers' worth based on students' standardized test scores. During the 1990s, I taught in a public magnet secondary school drawing students from diverse socioeconomic and ethnic groups all over Los Angeles. As in school districts nationwide, our students brought widely varying skills, aptitudes and attitudes. Since math is a cumulative subject, we built on what they had already learned.
Among my five classes of 35 to 40 students each in a typical year, I taught remedial math, regular pre-algebra, Algebra 1 and Honors Algebra 1. Eighth-graders could be in any of those classes. If they all took the same standardized math test, by which students' performance would I be evaluated and compensated? How would my school's score be rated in the Race to the Top? Would certain students — or teachers — be given handicaps? And if teachers are truly punished for students' scores, who will want to teach?
President Obama recently shared a personal story. His daughter Malia had earned a 73 percent on a science test. The policy of blaming teachers for students' low test scores might have threatened the teacher. But the president said Malia wanted to do better, worked harder and earned a 96 percent on her next science test. He realized that Malia herself needed to make a greater effort.
The truth is that effective education is not a race nor a blame game; it is a collaborative effort by students, parents and teachers.
-----
Betty R. Kazmin taught algebra for 20 years in Los Angeles public and private secondary schools, served on the board of education in Willard, Ohio, and writes on education issues from Medford.
-----
Read the opinion and post a comment on mailtribune.com.
http://www.mailtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a...0314/-1/NEWSMAP